“I thought it was a joke because the referral said 60-year-old patient with triplets, and I thought one of my colleagues or somebody’s just playing jokes with me or up to mischief and then actually the patient turned up in my office,” recalled Birch.

According to the CBC, the Alberta Health Services said the Hayer and babies — born seven weeks prematurely via Caesarean section — were in good condition Thursday.

A growing number of women have turned to fertility treatments in India, where there are relatively lax regulations for such procedures.

Rajo Devi, who claimed to be about 70 years old, gave birth in November to her first child, said Dr. Anurag Bishnoi of India’s National Fertility Center in northern Haryana state. However, it was impossible to verify whether Devi is the world’s oldest woman to give birth as she has no birth certificate.

In 2006, Carmela Bousada of Spain became what was believed to be the oldest new mother when she delivered twin boys at age 66.

Before that, Romanian citizen Adriana Iliescu gave birth to a baby girl in January 2005, also at 66. Bousada was 130 days older than Iliescu when she gave birth.